The province Germania inferior is an interesting candidate for investigating
town-country relations. While its southern part borders on the distribution area of
oppida, its northern parts had no Iron Age tradition of large settlement
agglomerations. Nonetheless, in the Roman period towns were founded here: the
Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten), Ulpia Noviomagus (Nijmegen) and Forum
Hadriani/Municipium Aelium Cananefatium (Voorburg). An important economic agent of
the time was the Roman army with its numerous forts along the Lower German Limes.
These massive and new agglomerations of persons that were not primarily involved in
food production must have posed a challenge to the supply of provisions ¿ in food as
well as other commodities. This panel summarises and compares the town-country
relationshipsin two civitates: the civitas Cugernorum with its capital Colonia Ulpia
Traiana and the civitas Batavorum with its capital Municipium Ulpia Noviomagus. What
supply strategies for the towns can be discerned ? In what way did the primary
centres influence the countryside? Are there differences between the civitates ? Do
they differ from those in the southern parts of Germania inferior ? And if so, what
are the reasons for it? Another focus are methodological questions, such as: with
the data that we have, can we answer these questions ? And if that is not the case,
what other methods may be applied to gain a deeper insight into this aspect of Roman
economy?